By John Barry, Times StaffPosted: May 31, 2012 11:47 AM
TAMPA — Before the two children were shot to death, the Scheneckers were a busy Internet family — shopping, studying and communicating with each other and everyone else on their computers.

On Thursday, an assistant public defender described a bottomless pit of emails, Internet searches, Facebook exchanges and hundreds of thousands of other items retrieved from computers in the Schenecker home. Somewhere in there could be evidence in the death-penalty case against Julie Schenecker, 51, accused of murdering her two teenagers, Calyx and Beau, early last year.

PHOENIX -- Police have arrested a Phoenix mother and her live-in
boyfriend in connection with a child-abuse case investigators say is one
of the worst they have ever seen.
Details were not immediately available. At this point, police have
only said that a 4-year-old is in extremely critical condition at a
Valley hospital.

BY KAREN MCCOWANThe Register-Guard
In closing statements on Wednesday, prosecutor Bob Lane urged jurors in Angelica Swartout’s second aggravated murder trial to listen closely to her own, videotaped words when she told a detective that she bore and smothered a baby boy in October 2010.

“She repeatedly refers to the baby as ‘him’ or ‘he,’ not ‘it,’ ” the Lane County deputy district attorney said.

He emphasized that when he played the Springfield hotel clerk’s confession in court on May 15, jurors “heard her say that this was a real baby and that, for whatever reason, she ended its life.”

Susan Powell’s parents now have control of the home where the missing Utah mother was last seen more than two years ago.

Property records list Chuck and Judy Cox as "owners" of the 2,238-square-foot home on Sarah Circle in West Valley City after a Washington probate judge named them special administrators for their daughter’s estate under a provision for missing persons cases.

SAVANNAH — A Superior Court judge Wednesday threw out all charges against a Savannah man accused of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl in 2003, saying years of delays and vanishing evidence violated the defendant's constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Quoting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in her order, Judge Penny Haas Freesemann noted that dismissing charges against Bobby Lavon Bucker was an extreme measure that means "a defendant who may be guilty of a serious crime will go free" without ever facing trial.

Buckner was charged with the slaying of Ashleigh Moore, his girlfriend's 12-year-old daughter. The girl went missing in April 2003 and her body was found a month later by a man fishing along the Savannah River.

BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- The highly publicized trial of Jerry Sandusky is set to begin next week.

The former Penn State assistant football coach, who is facing multiple child sex abuse charges, lost a final bid Wednesday to have his trial delayed. Presiding Judge John Cleland struck down a defense motion seeking a continuance.

“While I certainly do not doubt the sincerity of defense counsel in requesting a continuance,” Cleland said, “the reality of our system of justice is that no date for a trial is ever perfect, but some are better than others.”

Henry K. LeeThursday, May 31, 2012
Prosecutors are set to return to court Thursday to try to convict a Morgan Hill man for the murder of Sierra LaMar, even though they lack a major piece of evidence - the body of the 15-year-old South Bay girl.

It won't necessarily be an easy task.

David Boyd, the Santa Clara County deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, lacks not only a body but also a murder weapon and witnesses as 21-year-old Antolin Garcia-Torres goes to court to enter a plea to charges that could bring the death penalty.

William Cunningham may have been dead as long as five days before the babysitter who claimed to be his mother led police to him. Marquita Burch is facing charges for moving the boy's dead body, but no one has been charged with his death.

Today, the Hamilton County coroner updated Local 12 news reporter Joe Webb on the investigation.

People close to Burch had told us the boy was dumped in a laundry bag, and today, the coroner added details to how he was found.

By Vishal PersaudStaff writerPublished: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 3:33 p.m.Last Modified: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 3:33 p.m.
OCALA - In a sudden reversal, Justin Soto, one of the five defendants accused in the murder last year of 15-year-old Seath Jackson, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder.

On Tuesday, 36th District Court Judge Ruth Carter announced she found there was enough evidence to continue with the trial, CBS Detroit reports. Carter said she was struck by the testimony of Bianca's 8-year-old sister, Il'Andra, who said Bianca didn't move or make any noise when she usually did in her sleep.

While imposing the maximum sentence Tuesday against a woman convicted of child abuse for torturing a 21-month-old girl with cold water, a judge lamented that his options “pale in comparison to any justice that should be doled out.”

Mary Horsley, 51, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for her convictions on child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury and attempted child abuse with serious bodily injury. She also was sentenced to two years in the El Paso County jail for her conviction on two charges of misdemeanor child abuse, followed by five years of probation.

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -
Portland police are asking for the public's help in searching for a cognitively challenged woman who went missing.
Rachelle Laws, 22, did not return to her care home Tuesday night after missing her bus on the way home from work.

AKRON, OH (WOIO) -
An arrest in the weekend stabbing death of an Akron man.
The suspect, 29-year-old Rudolph Valentino
Ammons III, was identified and taken into custody without incident
around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 700 block of East Buchtel Avenue.

Isabel Celis is still missing, but the police in Tucson just released
over 500 pages of reports pertaining to evidence in this case. Among
those reports news headlines have focused heavily on the discovery of
blood and DNA evidence in this case, but there are other details in the
reports that add more to the confusion and create even more suspicion
over the family of this missing child.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- The estranged husband of a missing
South Florida mother will be given back custody of his three children.
The Department of Children and Families will grant Cid Torrez, the
estranged husband of missing 38-year-old Vilet Torrez, custody of his
three young children, despite the fact that police has named him a
person of interest in the case.

DETROIT (WWJ) – D’Andre Lane of Detroit will stand trial for the murder and disappearance of his 2-year-old daughter, Bianca Jones.
“I find that there’s been enough on this record through the testimony
and the evidence to bind Mr. Lane over as charged,” said 36th

DELTONA, Fla. -
Two Deltona men were arrested on suspicion of getting a 13-year-old boy drunk with gummy-flavored vodka.
Geoffrey McKenzie, 21, and T.J. Schnack, 19, were arrested over the weekend on child abuse charges.
According to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, the boy's mother picked him up after he spent the day at the men's home.

SANFORD, Fla. -- A judge is expected to rule Friday whether or not to keep George Zimmerman's statement to police secret.
That judge, Ken Lester, will hear from the prosecution and the defense in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Millerberg, 36, is charged with child abuse
homicide in connection with the death of Alexis Rasmussen whom he
allegedly injected with heroin and methamphetamine during a drug binge
that also included Millerberg's estranged wife, Dea Millerberg.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- More candidates are making bold accusations about Lawson Lamar in the race for the State Attorney's Office.
One
of the candidates says the deaths of two local teens could have been
avoided, if prosecutors had kept one of the Cady Way Trail murder
suspects behind bars.

ORLANDO, Florida -- Wayne Ivey, candidate for Brevard County Sheriff, is part of a special team assembled to review evidence and information in the disappearance of 34-year-old Orlando mother Michelle Parker.

Parker, who has three children, disappeared in November on the same day that she and her ex-fiancé were seen in an episode of “The People’s Court,” arguing over a missing engagement ring.

The ex-fiancé, father of Parker’s twins, has been considered a suspect, but has not been charged. Parker’s vehicle and cell phone have been recovered.

Police in Indiana have reached out to authorities in Louisiana
investigating the disappearance of a college student whose case has
similarities to the disappearance of an Indiana college student last
year, Fox 44 reports.
Bloomington police investigating the 2011 disappearance of Indiana
University student Lauren Spierer have contacted Lafayette authorities
who are searching for University of Louisiana student Michaela "Mickey"
Shunick, who has been missing since May 19.

SALEM, Ore. — Hundreds attended a Monday memorial for the family killed in a murder suicide out of Salem.

Police
still believe Nick Lazukin killed his wife and three daughters before
killing himself last week. The Slavic Christian Church in Salem was
packed with people coming to pay their final respects to the Lazukin
family Monday evening.

Here’s a comparison of the latest actors cast in “Prosecuting Casey
Anthony” and the people they play. Filming on the Lifetime movie starts
Tuesday in Winnipeg. The movie is based on former prosecutor Jeff
Ashton’s book “Imperfect Justice.”

New evidence in the Trayvon Martin murder trial could emerge in the next
few weeks, but both sides are reportedly fighting the release of a
voice stress test that defendant George Zimmerman took after the
shooting.

GREENWOOD, S.C. --
The Greenwood County coroner’s office says an 18 year old
Greenwood man died early Tuesday morning after being shot. Deputy
coroner Marcia Kelly-Clark says Ketavius Levelle Gilliam was shot in the
neck in front of a house on Parkland Place Road and appeared to have
run across the street where he collapsed in a ditch. Gilliam died at
the scene.

WEST HAVEN, Utah — Even though school is over for Fremont High
students, news of Cameron Charlton’s death spread fast among classmates
over Facebook.
Police say the shooting was accidental after Cameron’s brother Eric
pulled out a handgun that somehow discharged and killed the 17-year-old.

BEIRUT
(AP)
–
The U.N.'s
human rights office on Tuesday added grim new details about the
massacre of more than 100 people in a rural area in Syria last week,
saying that most of the dead were shot at close range, some of them
women and children killed in their homes.

It was an informational
meeting, said state Rep. Mia Jones, D-Jacksonville, one of those who
sponsored the gathering. But the law's possible role in Trayvon Martin's
shooting death in Sanford and in the recent case of Marissa Alexander, a
Jacksonville woman sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot at
her husband in a dispute, prompted strong reactions from the mostly
African-American audience.
Both Martin and Alexander are black.

Meanwhile, the state and the Jacksonville chapters of the NAACP are planning a "Free Marissa" march and rally on May 29.

Jones said Corey had been invited
to participate in the forum, but was unable to attend. Jackelyn
Barnard, the spokeswoman for Corey’s office, said the state attorney was
in a high-level staff meeting, but some employees of her office were in
the audience.

HAYWARD (CBS SF) — Friends, family and community members will gather
in Hayward Sunday evening to mark the one-year anniversary of the
disappearance of Michelle Le, a 26-year-old San Mateo nursing student
who was later found murdered.

Le disappeared on May 27 from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in
Hayward, where she was working. She was studying to be a nurse at
Samuel Merritt University in Oakland.

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
Pedro Hernandez, the former store clerk charged in the 1979 death of
6-year-old Etan Patz after he confessed to the alleged murder,
reportedly kept the boy's body in a walk-in refrigerator in the store's
basement before discarding it.

In recent days, the public has seen a great deal of the evidence against George Zimmerman, including Trayvon Martin's
autopsy records, crime-scene photos, interview recordings and police
reports. But his lawyer says there's still a lot we haven't seen.

Police said Kearra Lewis was killed while with her babysitter 23-year-old Charles Foster.
Foster
is accused of throwing the toddler against a wall, and the child's
grandmother thinks it is because the baby was sick and was crying a lot.

DOHA, Qatar
(AP) -- Qatar's Interior Ministry said 13 children were among 19 people
killed in a fire that broke out in one of the country's fanciest
shopping malls late Monday morning, raising questions about building
safety in the booming Gulf state.

At least
some of the victims died as rescuers struggled to reach a child care
center at the Villaggio mall in the capital Doha, according to Qatar's
Minister of State for Interior Affairs, Sheik Abdullah bin Nasser Al
Thani.

When the state of Arizona takes custody of a child because of
suspected abuse or neglect, authorities ultimately have one goal:
finding a safe, permanent home for the child.
It's up to the courts to decide whether to reunite children with
parents or place them with relatives or an adoptive family, and experts
agree it should happen as quickly as possible. The more time passes, the
more likely the children will be traumatized by their experience with
the child-welfare system.
A recent increase in the number of foster children, with no
corresponding rise in staff, has put mounting pressure on juvenile
courts and made it more difficult to quickly resolve these cases.

HOUSTON -- A judge threw a 17-year-old 11th grade honor student from
Willis High School in jail after she missed school again.
Judge Lanny Moriarty said last month Diane Tran was in his Justice of
the Peace court for truancy and he warned her then to stop missing
school. But she recently missed classes again so Wednesday he issued a
summons and had her arrested in open court when she appeared.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Rodney
Berget lives in a single cell on South Dakota's death row, rarely
leaving the tiny room where he awaits execution for bludgeoning a prison
guard to death with a pipe during an attempted escape.

For Berget's immediate family, his fate is somewhat familiar. He is
the second member of the clan to be sentenced to death. His older
brother was convicted in 1987 of killing a man for his car. Roger Berget
spent 13 years on Oklahoma's death row until his execution in 2000 at
age 39.

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
Two fishermen found the bicycle of missing Louisiana student Michaela
"Mickey" Shunick today, more than a week after the 22-year-old woman
went missing after leaving a friend's home on her bike.
Police found the bike early this morning under a bridge at Whiskey Bay
on the Atchafalaya River, after being tipped off by the fishermen.

The one-time attorney of the
notorious murderer Ted Bundy has penned a memoir detailing the
disturbing conversations he had with the killer before he was executed
in 1989. Seattle
attorney John Henry Browne represented Bundy in the 1970s, a time when
he had unparallelled access to one of the darkest minds of the 20th
century. 'Ted told me things that he’s never told anybody,' Mr Browne told Q13Fox. 'He told me he killed more than 100 people, and not only women.'

(JACKSON, Miss.) -- Students will no longer be handcuffed to poles in a Jackson, Mississippi public school.

The
Capital City Alternative School, Mississippi’s second largest school
district, reached the agreement with the Southern Poverty Law Center in
U-S District Court on Friday. They agreed to immediately stop the
practice of handcuffing their students to poles and other objects, and
must immediately place new methods of discipline in dealing with
non-criminal behaviors.

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
A Vancouver, Wash., man accused of imprisoning his two autistic sons in a
room with a "cage-like" door testified that he'd heard on TV that it
was OK to lock a child in a room for safety, and his former live-in
girlfriend broke down in tears on the stand.

These days, Cheryl Brown has to walk the dog. • For a month — ever since
her son heard someone screaming for help and her daughter called 911
and everyone heard the loud snap of a gunshot — Brown's children have
been afraid to go outside. • Her youngest daughter, who is 9, won't even
look out the window. She keeps seeing the dead teen's body. • "That
could have so easily been my son," said Brown. "He wears hoodies all the
time."

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -
A Umatilla High School senior toldFOX 35
she was punished for standing up to students on a school bus who
werebullying a mentally challenged teen.

"Just because she doesn't understand doesn'tmean that should be happening to her," senior Stormy Rich said.
According
to the 18-year old, she witnessed the girlgetting bullied on the bus
for months and complained to school officials forweeks.

A candlelight vigil is to be held in memory of a 5-year-old Monroe girl
who disappeared three years ago and was found buried near a river.
The event in honor of Nevaeh Buchanan is to get under way Sunday night
at St. Mary's Park in Monroe.

MEMPHIS, TN -
(WMC-TV) - It may be a long road to recovery for Alexandria and Kyliyah Bain.

Dr. Gina Simmons is a family therapist in
California and award winning columnist for Forbes.com. Her latest
article is giving national attention to the post-trauma recovery of the
Bain sisters.

Dr. Simmons' article "Psychological Damage
Likely For the Child Kidnapping Victims of Adam Mayes" on Forbes.com
suggests 12 year-old Alexandria and 8-year-old Kyliyah are now in the
early stages of recovery called fight or flight.

Police are looking for a young man in connection to the death of a
17-year-old girl, who has been identified as Jessica Scholl, found
following a Renton house fire Friday morning.
Scholl was found to
have been stabbed multiple times and have suffered blunt force trauma
from several items inside the home, police said.

Lewis County prosecutors indicated in court Friday that a toddler who
died a day earlier had been "systematically tortured" prior to her
death and investigators were pursuing evidence of murder and rape
against the boyfriend of the girl's mother, The Chronicle reported.
The boyfriend, James Reeder, 25, was booked into the Lewis County Jail for suspicion of first-degree murder late Thursday.

Bob Bashara on Saturday said a St. Clair Shores church leader’s version
of Bashara being ordered off church property during a festival
fundraiser last week was not accurate. Bashara worked as a volunteer
dealing cards at the Vegas tent for more than 10 hours over two days
before being asked to leave the premises.

Bashara, the Grosse Pointe Park property manager who has been named as
a person of interest in the strangulation of his wife, said he was
bounced from the event only after an intoxicated man caused a scene at
the St. Joan of Arc Spring Festival and security was called.

The day after Bob McCaffrey called 911 to report his wife
missing, he sat down with investigators and told his side of the story
for five hours.

Since that debriefing more than two
months ago, he hasn’t uttered a word to the authorities trying to find
the West Ashley mother. Family members say the man who’s considered the
suspect in Gayle McCaffrey’s presumed death won’t answer their questions
either.

Addison Logan, 13, probably wouldn’t have gone to the garage sale
Thursday if he hadn’t broken his arm in a dirt bike accident a couple of
weeks ago.
He probably would have been riding the bike.
Instead, Addison, who likes garage sales, was driving around to some of them with his grandmother, Lois Logan, in west Wichita.

SALISBURY -- The motions hearing for a Hebron man facing manslaughter
charges for the death of his 4-year-old son was postponed Friday.
The new hearing for 29-year-old Jamal Alim Woolford Sr. is June 15 at 9 a.m. in Wicomico County Circuit Court.
Woolford
was charged with manslaughter three weeks after his son, Jamal Woolford
Jr., shot and killed himself with an unsecured handgun on March 5
inside the family home.

Lafayette police released footage Friday night that they believe shows Shunick, a 22-year-old senior anthropology major at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, riding her bicycle in downtown Lafayette.

Police said one segment of video shows the cyclist on Versailles Boulevard, traveling toward St. John Street at 1:47 a.m. CDT May 19. She then traveled onto St. John Street and crossed over University Avenue, continuing west on St. Landry Street, where she was seen on another video at 1:48 a.m.

Florida police have arrested a 25-year-old man they say beat a toddler with a plastic flower.
Lady Lake Police arrested Brandon Quimper on a child abuse charge
Thursday. According to an arrest affidavit, the 2-year-old had 4-5 inch
bruises and abrasions on her back and legs.

KEARNEY, Neb. — Publicity before the slaying trial of Casey Anthony,
who told police a baby sitter had kidnapped her child, affected the
outcome of the case, Anthony's prosecutor said in Kearney on Thursday.
“Thousands
of people were convinced that Casey Anthony was guilty before we ever
called the first witness at trial,” said Jeff Ashton, one of three
prosecutors who tried the Orlando, Fla., woman in 2011 for the murder of
her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

Drew Peterson’s judge took offense Friday to a
prosecutor’s attempt to limit emails bouncing back and forth between
attorneys in the case.

But the simple result of a hastily called hearing
to discuss an “emergency motion” in the three-year-old murder case is
this: attorneys from one side can’t email attorneys from the other after
work hours.

DETROIT -
The Local 4 Defenders have learned that Joe Gentz has been causing more problems behind bars.
Another
disciplinary report has been created because of Gentz's aggressive
behavior and continued refusal to comply with instructions.
Sources told the Defenders Gentz is arguing with other inmates about several things, including television.

(CBS News) Pedro Hernandez is in a New York City hospital this
morning on a suicide watch. He was arrested Thursday after confessing to
strangling 6-year-old Etan Patz back in 1979.
Now police are looking for evidence to corroborate his confession.

BEIJING -- State media in China say a trial has begun for a man accused
of driving a minivan that ran over a toddler on a busy street. The case
sparked outrage after the little girl was ignored as she lay dying on
the road.

The case against Antolin Garcia-Torres goes far beyond Sierra Lamar.
Three years ago, without the search crews or candlelight vigils, there
were a series of assaults that investigators believe might be linked to
Garcia-Torres.

Despite the fact that a 21-year-old Morgan Hill man
is now behind bars in the case of Sierra LaMar, the Santa Clara County
Sheriff said more tips are flowing into the office regarding her kidnap
and supposed murder.

Antolin Garcia-Torres was arrested
Monday on charges that he kidnapped the 15-year-old Sierra near her bus
stop on March 16, and later murdered her, though her body still hasn't
been found.

ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -
The nation stopped and watched every
tear Casey Anthony shed and every expression on her face as she stood
trial on first degree murder charges against her for the death of her
daughter. We knew her every move.

Volunteers are planning to resume the search for a Fort Bragg soldier missing for six weeks.
The
Fayetteville Observer reports that the Community Volunteer Search Group
says it plans to search for Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux on Saturday.

It is now day two of the Texas Equusearch efforts to find Mickey
Shunick. Since the group's arrival, search efforts are now more
structured.
"Nothing at all has been found. No evidence, no footage, nothing at all."
"Time is very important right now and it is not on our side, it's not on our side."

There are new developments in the case of missing Lafayette woman Mickey
Shunick. "Detectives were able to identify a bicyclist believed to be
Mickey Shunick traveling on Versailles Blvd and Saint Landry Street.

George Zimmerman hasn’t yet been convicted in the killing of teen
Trayvon Martin. In fact, based on evidence recently released during the
discovery process of the trial, it’s not even clear whether Zimmerman or
Martin threw the first punch, or whether Zimmerman’s actions were
motivated by self-defense.